2011 in Review: Fighting the Internet Blacklist Bills

As the year draws to a close, EFF is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2011 and discussing where we are in the fight for a free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are the House and Senate version of a proposed law that would allow the U.S. Attorney General to create blacklists of websites to censor, cut off from funding, or remove from search engine indexes. Although the current bills are reworked versions of legislation proposed in 2010 (the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or COICA), 2011 has been a true milestone in the fight against them.

A manager’s amendment introduced in December, just days before the scheduled markup, patched over some of the most egregious problems, but didn’t go far enough. Though some members of the Committee — including Chairman Lamar Smith, who also wrote the bill — seemed bent on pushing SOPA through, ultimately the concerns from the public proved overwhelming. In response to a motion for more expert testimony, Chairman Smith suspended the markup.

Some of the opponents of the bill in Congress, including Senator Wyden and Representative Darrell Issa, have put together an alternate proposal, called the Open Act. This bill, though not perfect, represents a major improvement over the blacklist bills. Better, the sponsors encourage public feedback and commentary from interested parties — a far cry from the secretive drafting process of SOPA and PIPA.

Senator Harry Reid has promised to bring PIPA back to the floor of the Senate when they resume in January, and Senator Wyden has threatened to filibuster the bill, and will read the names of Americans who oppose it. SOPA is likely to return to markup in late January.

In the meantime, Senators and Representatives need to hear your voice speaking out against this bill. If you haven’t yet, take our action alert now to e-mail your blacklist bill opposition to your legislators. We’ve also provided a toolkit for activism with more suggestions of actions you can take against the bills. In 2012, we could finally defeat these disastrous bills, and let the government know that we won’t tolerate Internet censors

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